It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Owen. I thank Chris Philp for securing the debate and bringing the matter to the House for discussion.

As a new MP looking for a flat in London, I encountered some of the problems that have been talked about today. The number of people living in London has increased by a fifth, while the number of homes available has not increased at the same rate.

As the third-party representative summing up the debate, I would like to share some points from north of the border, if I may. The right to buy will end for all council and housing association tenants in Scotland on 1 August 2016. In 2013, 185,000 people were on the waiting list, while only 54,000 council houses were available to let. Although the right to buy has driven up home ownership in Scotland, it has contributed to an acute shortage of social housing. The abolition of the right to buy will keep 15,500 homes in the social sector for the next decade.